Chelsea looking at January signing

Rafael Benitez on Wednesday confirmed that Chelsea is looking to bring in reinforcements in January, saying cryptically: "We'll see if there are any surprises."
Oriol Romeu's season-ending injury has left the European champions short of holding midfielders, with their only other recognized player in that position, John Obi Mikel, on African Nations Cup duty next month.

They have also been rumored to be in talks for a striker, most notably Atletico Madrid superstar Radamel Falcao.

Speaking ahead ahead of Thursday's Club World Cup semifinal against Monterrey, interim manager Benitez said: "The club is working and always looking for good players, so we'll see if there are any surprises."

Romeu's injury, which he suffered in Saturday's Barclays Premier League win at Sunderland, had taken Chelsea by surprise, Benitez said.

"Oriol Romeu was bad news and we weren't expecting something so serious," he said.
"He'll be fine for the future, he's a young player."

With so few options and Frank Lampard only just back from injury himself, Benitez could be forgiven for fielding a team of youngsters against Monterrey Thursday for a match they would be expected to win almost regardless of selection.

"No, I intend to win. I'll pick players to win the first game. You cannot think about the final until you've won the semifinal," he said.

Benitez said his squad had found it tough adjusting to the nine-hour time difference since arriving in Yokohama on Sunday, joking that Chelsea's main focus was "to try to sleep more than four hours."

He confirmed he had watched videos of Thursday's opponents but betrayed the difficulty of knowing them inside out when he referred to several of their dangermen by number instead of name.

Benitez reiterated the importance of winning the Club World Cup, a message which has got through to players used to the Champions League being the ultimate prize in club football.

Defender Gary Cahill admitted being in Japan had driven home that message.

"When I came to Chelsea, I came to win trophies. This is a big opportunity to do that," he said.
"It's a fantastic competition and one that doesn't come around very often. It's hard to get into this competition in the first place. We've traveled all this way and we now want to win it.

"We've got some Brazilians in our squad and it's absolutely huge for them. It's sunk in how big it is, and we want to do well in it now."

Chelsea arrived in Yokohama on the back of two straight victories after Benitez failed to win any of his first three games in charge.

Cahill revealed the former Liverpool boss' ideas had finally begun to bear fruit.

"Defensively, as a team, we've tightened up which has given us a platform to build from," he said.
"It was hard for him to get all his points across at first because he was playing games every couple of days, but now the lads are fully aware of what strategy he's come up with and what's expected of them. It's working well at the minute."